Europa Universalis 2 Walkthrough :

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Walkthrough - Strategy Guide

GamingHyena's Europa Universalis 2 FAQ v1.05
So, tired of getting beat by France? Maybe sick of the endless revolts? I created
this FAQ to endure the pain so you don't have to. Sure, some of this in the manual, but
who wants to wade through all that? Besides, I provide hints that actually work.
Table of Contents:
1. For the Rookies
2. Inflation
3. Loans
4. Revolts
5. Religion
6. Diplomacy
7. War
8. Winning the Game
*NOTE*
This FAQ cannot be put on any website, public or private, without express permission of
the author. Want permission? E-mail: Happyhyena2000@yahoo.com. Also, if you send me
any tips
I can use, I will be sure to credit you in the FAQ. Check out my
website for reviews and more walkthroughs at http://gaminghyena.tripod.com/
Comments? AIM me at Screename GamingHyena2000
Copyright 2003 All rights Reserved
*NOTE*
v1.00 Initial Release.
v1.01 Minor spelling errors and typos fixed.
v1.02 Spacing and indents added to make FAQ easier to read.
v1.03 Added list of sites where FAQ can be posted.
v1.04 Revised list of sites. (3/20/03)
v1.05 Revised list of sites (again), added AIM screename. (4/4/03)
*NOTE*
The following websites have my permission to post this FAQ (as of 3/20/03). If you see it
on any
unauthorized sites, please let me know:
http://gaminghyena.tripod.com/
http://www.cheatcc.com/
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
http://www.actiontrip.com/
http://faqs.ign.com/
http://www.neoseeker.com/
For the Rookies:
This game can be a little overwhelming when you first start out, so a great starting
country is Austria in the Grand Campaign. Almost all the historical events are positive,
and you have a decent economy. Austria starts out with a ready-made alliance with a
decent country (Hungary, just ask to join them) that's at war with one of your neighbors
(Venice). This gives you a chance to take some costal territories, learn how to fight
with
a partner, without having to worry about different religious factions. Since Austria
doesn't participate in the colonial battles, (at least, not in real life) you can devote
all your
attention to one area of the map. Also, since Eastern Europe pretty much stays Catholic,
stability and religious infighting shouldn't be a huge factor early in the game. If you
are
having difficulties in the game, I would suggest Austria as a good training nation.
Also, building improvements are vital to advancing in the game. A nation with
several Manufactories of all kinds gives you the freedom to temporarily withdraw
funding for one category (say, to boost Stability), while still allowing the other
categories
to advance. Although expensive, the sooner you build Manufactories, the better value
they become.
Inflation:
Inflation can become a large problem if you're not careful in managing your
economy. It raises the prices of the things you need to buy, and can be quite hard to get
rid of until you research the appropriate technology. Generally, inflation has two root
causes, having a surplus in the monthly treasury and inflation from gold. Unfortunately
for you, having a deficit in the monthly treasury doesn't seem to reduce inflation, so its
best for your economy to have 0 surplus (or as close as possible). Trying to survive only
off your yearly income you get on Jan 1st of each year (which doesn't count towards your
inflation level) can be hard going at times, particularly when you are at war.
Still, the best way to get rid of inflation in EU2 is not to get it in the first place.
Some inflation will inevitably occur (like when you start colonizing the New World with
its large gold reserves), but if you can keep it under 10% you should be doing fine. Some
of you may be thinking you can reduce inflation by simply not getting gold producing
territories, but these territories produce far more gold than inflation and generally help
your economy more than they hurt.
Later on you can promote mayors to governors (Infrastructure Level 5). Each
governor you make reduces inflation by 1%. The thing to remember is that it's a one shot
bonus: if you convert all mayors to governors and then get inflation you're out of luck.
That's why its important to only produce governors when you need them so you don't
run out of territories whenever inflation rears its ugly head.
Loans:
Anytime you need money you can get a loan. Usually they come in 200 gold
increments, which can be a problem if you only need 20 gold. Plus, you can only pay
them back 5 years from the day you were loaned the gold, and since the game doesn't tell
you the loan's coming due, loans can be a real headache. Their interest drains a couple
of
pieces of gold from your treasury every month, which adds salt to the wound. If you
must take a loan, write down on a piece of paper the day you got the loan, plus the day
it's due. Hopefully you won't forget and have enough time to save up before the loan
comes due again. If you are unable to pay your debts and max out your loans, you go
into bankruptcy, which can be a real blow to your country (especially if you are at war).
Bankruptcy Loophole:
If you are a small country, you can max out your loans, buy a large army or
improvement, and declare bankruptcy. Since the game doesn't repossess you assets, you
can abuse the system for free money. Sure your army morale will suffer for a few years,
but if you can ride that time out it can be a good way to jumpstart your military or
investments. I once jumpstarted the Papal States rise to power by building a large army
and a Manufactory in this very fashion. Although I had to wait a few years because of
the drop in morale for my troops, it was worth it in the end.
Revolts:
Even the best run empire occasionally gets revolts, so lets examine the roots of
revolts and how to deal with them. Revolts are occasionally made through a random
event, and generally there's no way to prevent these. Simply grab a nearby army and
send them towards the affected territory. Revolts should always be dealt with quickly, or
else they tend to spread across your empire and eventually territories will declare
independence. The only thing that should command higher priority than a territory in
revolt is a foreign invasion. However, most revolts can be avoided simply by reducing
the revolt risk. You can reduce your overall risk by keeping your stability at +3.
Remember that the larger your empire, the more expensive it is to build up your Stability,
so try and build several Fine Arts Academies to help out. Also, if for whatever reason
you experience a severe drop in Stability, don't hesitate to dump your entire treasury
into
improving Stability (i.e. move the Stability slider to the max).
You can generally reduce the improvement time to a couple of months, which can be
vital if several of your
territories suddenly develop a high revolt risk because of the drop in Stability.
When you view each territory, one of the statistics you see is the revolt risk. If
you hold your mouse over the revolt risk line, it will eventually show you all the
positive
and negative modifiers that affect this territory. Generally you will see something like
(+3 Religion +1 Cultural Differences -1 Manufactory), which gives the territory an
overall 3% chance of revolting (3 + 1 – 1 = 3). Although sometimes the revolt risk is
beyond your control (like when you conquer a territory, the territory automatically
develops Nationalism), there's usually something you can do about it to help out. Lets
take a look at some of the positive and negative modifiers for revolt and see what can be
done about them.
Modifiers:
Religion (actually, religion can be positive or negative modifier depending on your
country's attitude towards the religion)
Cultural differences (usually +1, occurs when the territory has a different culture than
your capital, not much you can do about it)
Bailiff (+3 but an optional upgrade which boosts taxes in that territory, which makes it a
tough decision on whether it will hurt more than help)
Chief Judge (-1 and increases income, helps take the edge off the bailiff upgrade)
Neighboring Rebels (usually +2, and means one of the territories surrounding this one
are in revolt. Take out the neighboring rebels if they are in your country. However, if
your territory is on the border and your neighbor's territory is revolting, there's not
much
you can do about it)
Nationalism (can range from +3 to +1, and happens whenever you conquer a territory.
After a few decades, it goes away, but in the meantime just station troops in the occupied
territory until Nationalism go away. A territory with Nationalism will always have a
revolt risk regardless of the other modifiers.)
War Weariness (starts out +1, but can quickly grow. Happens when your country as at
war too long, regardless of whether or not you are actually fighting. Depending on your
domestic policies, War Weariness can start several weeks to several months after war is
declared.)
Religion:
Religion can be your most powerful ally against revolt; a religion with maximum
toleration can have a –11 affect on revolt! Unfortunately, you must be intolerant to
other
religions to achieve maximum toleration. (To change tolerance, click on your country's
national shield in the upper left corner, and then click on your country's religion
emblem)
Usually its best to only allow 1-2 religious minorities in your empire at once. Any more
can take a chunk out of stability. If you have a religious minority (Reformists are good
for this one) in your empire with only one or two territories, try sending missionaries
there to convert them to your state religion. Once they are all gone, put the slider for
that
religion at minimum. Since you don't have that minority in your empire any longer, you
can safely put them at minimum with no loss in stability. In fact, all the other
religions
will increase their stability.
Tolerance of various religions within your empire also affects other countries with
that same religion (if you start persecuting Muslims, then the Ottomans aren't going to
look too kindly on you). Here is a list of the religions and their affects (it's actually
right
out of the manual pg. 72):
Catholicism: +2 diplomats/year +1 missionary every 2 years. Bonus in Stability
and Production Efficiency.
Counter-Reformed Catholicism: +2 diplomats/year +1 missionary/year Bonus
in Stability, lowers Tax Value. Ability to convert countries by force into Catholicism.
Protestantism: +1 diplomat/year +1 colonist/year Lower Stability. Bonus in
Production Efficiency and Tax Value.
Reformist: +1 diplomat/year +2 colonist/year +1 level of Morale for army and
navy. Bonus to profits of merchants. Lower Stability and Tax Value.
Orthodox: +1 colonist every 2 years. Bonus in Stability. Not affected
diplomatically by change in religion.
Shia Moslem: +1 level of Morale for army and navy. Bonus in Stability. Lower
Tax Value.
Suni Moslem: Bonus in Stability.
Confucianism: Bonus in Stability. Lower Tax Value. Lower Trade Efficiency.
Hinduism: Bonus for morale in army and navy. Lower Stability.
Buddhism: +1 Missionary every 2 years. Lower Tax Value. Bonus in Stability.
So…which one do I choose?
Well, since you can't be any religion you want, you will probably only have two
or three choices. Catholicism is a good default choice for Europe, since most countries
stay Catholic. Counter-Reformed Catholicism is a bit overrated, since there are
restrictions on forced conversion and it lowers your tax value. Protestantism is a good
choice for Western Europe, but you don't want to be, say Austria, and stuck in the middle
of a bunch of Catholic Countries. Reformist, with its army/navy bonus, is only good if
you want to go to war. European countries, because they only have one slider for
Muslims, can easily conquer the Middle East since they don't differentiate between Shia
and Suni Muslims. Finally, remember that changing state religions (except from Catholic
to Counter-Reformed Catholic) mess up your stability and relations with other nations, so
if you do plan to change religions, only do it once per game and make it permanent.
Diplomacy:
Diplomacy will make or break your kingdom, so its best to master diplomacy
early on. Reputation is your bread and butter in the diplomacy biz, so make sure and
keep yours at very least tarnished for as long as possible. Why should you care about
reputation? Other countries will invade you if you have a bad rep, and your allies won't
help out. Since one country generally can't take on an alliance in this game, keeping
your reputation alive will help keep your kingdom alive. Here are some other tips
Strategy First doesn't want you to know about diplomacy….
NEVER be outside a strong alliance. Your alliance should always include one of
the traditional great powers (i.e. England, Russia, Spain, France, or Austria). Make
these
powers happy at all cost. Often they will ask you to declare war on some other country.
Unless that country is in a position to swamp you, declare war on them. If you don't,
then your reputation takes a hit, stability takes a hit, and the alliance dissolves,
leaving
you in a lurch. Just because you declare war on someone doesn't mean you actually have
to fight them. If you wait a few weeks, you can usually exit the war with a white peace.
Also, if a country breaks away from another because of rebellion, then it will
automatically declare war on the parent country. Often, that parent country will ask you
to declare war on the new country. Do it, and annex the new country. It's an easy way to
gain territories at your ally's expense, and they'll thank you for it!
War Weariness resets the second you aren't at war with anyone. Use this bug to
your advantage by timing your wars right. After you finish off one country, sue for
peace. The second you get peace declare war on your next enemy. By rotating out your
enemies, you can also devote your entire military to fighting only one country at a time.
Another really cool bug you can exploit works if you are entering a risky war with
one of your neighbors, and you are afraid of losing. Generally, a few days after you
begin the war you enemy will come and demand a small sum for peace. Instead of
responding to that offer, drag it off to the side somewhere and go to war. If you are
winning and want out, just decline that initial offer for peace. You can then send them a
diplomat and ask for whatever you want. However, if the war goes badly for you, then
accept the original peace offer and all you'll be out is the original peace offer.
A related note goes to fighting alliances. If you make peace with the leader of an
alliance, then you make peace with everyone. Note that if the alliance declares war on
you, then the leader is whichever country declared war, while if you attack an alliance,
the leader will be whichever country you declared war on. Therefore, when fighting an
alliance, it is best to attack the alliance leader last. For example, if I am Austria and
am
fighting Poland (leader) and Lithuania, I should attack Lithuania first. Why? Because if
I can take out Lithuania first and grab a few pieces of land for peace, then I am still at
war with Poland, and can then grab land for peace from her as well, resulting in more
land for me than had I simply attacked and made peace with Poland first.
Likewise, make peace with the leader first if the war goes badly. If Lithuania
now occupies half my territories, and Poland owns nothing of mine, then I should try and
make peace with Poland. Since peace with Poland also means peace with Lithuania, you
can shop around and see which country has the best deal for peace.
You should generally wait to see what the computer is offering before deciding on
whether or not to deal. While you can only demand the territories you control (or those
considered part of your national provinces), the other country can offer any territories
it
owns. This means you might just want to sit on them for a few months to see if they will
offer some territories you otherwise couldn't reach. The colonial powers will often offer
a slew of colonies in exchange for their European territories back, and this can be a
quick
way to jumpstart your colonial empire. The only downside to this is that every colony
big enough to be a city will develop Nationalism, and if a far flung colony revolts you
may not be in a position to do anything about it.
Remember that the stability penalties in the game also apply to the computer.
They also suffer from war weariness and a drop in Stability should they attack your
without reason, same as you will. Therefore, it's not a bad idea to maintain good
relations with people you don't intend to attack immediately. Trade agreements and
royal marriages are even better. That way, when the computer tries to attack you
suddenly, it will increase the chance it will have to deal with revolts at home in
addition
to your armies.
War:
You'll do best in Europa Universalis 2 if you make your decision making process
as if you were actually running a country. Because of this, there are three questions you
should ask before you go to war.
1. Can I win quickly?
2. Can I win cheaply?
3. Will the gains of war be worth it?
These questions may seem obvious, but asking them has saved me from many a
fruitless war. The computer is not stupid, and will attack you if a long war with another
country is sapping your strength. Sometimes it can be best to take a short-term loss to
avoid a long war against a superior foe.
Although shaping your domestic policy is generally something that should be left
to your own preference, there are some sliders that are important. Quality should always
be at maximum. This will give you the best armies the best chance of winning.
Offensive and Defensive doctrine should be kept as neutral as possible. This is because a
completely offensive doctrine negatively impacts your siege rating, which makes taking
towns difficult. A completely defensive doctrine robs your armies of shock value,
making them useless in combat. Leaving it neutral allows you to take towns and kill
armies. Land should be emphasized over Sea unless you plan on being almost
exclusively a colonial power (like Portugal or England). Because taking territories and
fighting armies is what this game is all about, and because sea battles can be largely
avoided, Land should always have priority. Many nations can get away with never
building a single ship. However, since England is so reliant on her navy due to her
island
nation and need to colonize, England should slightly emphasize Sea over land (same with
Portugal).
Because it can be a major hit to your reputation to militarily annex a country (no
matter how big or small it is), it can be effective to wait until another country annexes
those little countries, and then invade the big country. It only takes a few annexations
before your reputation goes down the toilet, no matter how small the country was that
you annexed. By letting the other guy take the hit in diplomacy, you can safely take the
same territories without the cost. This works well in Northern and Southern Europe,
where little one-territory countries are common.
Although most games of EU2 rarely adhere to history, it's a good idea to know
what countries grow powerful in real life and when. Historical events often give these
countries bonuses that correspond to their real life counterparts (i.e. Austria gets a
historical event annex Hungary at roughly the same time as they did in the real world).
Since many of the great powers start out fractured, you can really put the hurt on them
quickly by allying with their neighbors. For example, a good Ireland/Scotland alliance
against England will generally retard England's rise to power, while allying with Aragon
against Castile in the 1400's can really screw up Spain later in the game, especially if
you
can prevent their unification in the late 1400's. In one game I was playing as Austria, I
allied with Savoy and Burgandy against France early on. France never recovered, and
stayed broken up until the end of the game in 1819. The best part is that since you
generally don't have to commit any troops yourself to the conflict, just set up the
alliance.
Even if the war goes badly for your allies you won't be affected.
Winning the Game:
Believe it or not, it is quite easy to win a game of EU2 without dominating the
globe. This is because of the somewhat quirky system of victory points the game uses to
determine the winner. Here I've detailed some easy ways to boost your victory score.
Perhaps the easiest way to boost your victory score is to do the diplomacy
missions. One mission in particular, Keep _____, gives you twenty victory points simply
for keeping one of your own territories for five years. By doing this mission alone, over
and over for the Grand Campaign (400 years) will give you 1600 points by the time its all
over! (20ptsX 80missions=1600pts) This can give you a major boost over your rivals by
itself. Other easy missions include "Royal Marriage with ______", and the somewhat
harder "Vassalize _____."
Manufactories also provide easy bonus points, although these can get rather
expensive. Still, manufactories provide a lot of useful bonuses in addition to victory
points, including an increase in stability for that territory, a yearly bonus of gold, and
they
each add +5 gold towards a particular technological category.
War is a pretty easy way to grab victory points as well. Winning battles,
conquering territories, and forcing a change in your enemy's state religion will net you
victory points. However, wars can be risky, and can damage your credibility in the long
run.
Finally, being elected the Holy Roman Emperor is a good way to gain victory
points. The only problem is that you must have good relations with all the electorates
and meet certain requirements to be elected HRE. Plus elections don't come at regular
intervals, making them very hard to plan for. So, if you do get elected Emperor, sit back
and enjoy your good fortune, but try not to make it part of your plans.